Alvan T. Fuller
|birth_place=Charlestown, Boston, Massachusetts |death_date= |death_place=Boston, Massachusetts |children=Peter Fuller |profession=Motor Car Dealer |party= Republican |order2 = 48th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts |term_start2 = 1921 |term_end2 = 1925 |governor2 = Channing H. Cox |predecessor2 = Channing H. Cox |successor2 = Frank G. Allen }} Alvan Tufts Fuller (February 27, 1878 – April 30, 1958) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He became one of the wealthiest men in America, with an automobile dealership which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership." He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916. He was then elected as Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1925-1929. Biography He was born in Boston on February 27, 1878. He attended the public schools and first worked in the bicycle business. He founded and grew wealthy from his ownership of Boston's Packard dealership. He served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916. He was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress and reelected to the Sixty-sixth Congress, serving from March 4, 1917, to January 5, 1921.Time: "Milestones, May 12, 1958", accessed July 24, 2010 Fuller served as the 48th Lieutenant Governor from 1921 to 1925, and he was elected 50th Governor in 1924. He was reelected to a second two-year term. He did not accept compensation for services while in public office.New York Times: "Fuller Explains Refusal of Salary, September 20, 1926, accessed July 24, 2010 As governor, Fuller faced a significant budget deficit that required initiatives to reduce expenditures and downsize government operations. His term as governor also coincided with the Sacco and Vanzetti affair, a series of trials for murder and robbery followed by legal appeals that culminated in calls for the governor to commute the death sentences of the two Italian immigrants. Governor Fuller appointed a three-member panel of Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, MIT President Dr. Samuel W. Stratton, and retired Probate Judge Robert Grant to conduct a complete review of the case and determine if the trials were fair.New York Times: "Appoints Advisers for Sacco Inquiry," June 2, 1927, accessed January 6, 2010 The committee reported that no new trial was called for and based on that assessment Governor Fuller refused to delay their executions or grant clemency. On May 10, 1927, while Fuller was considering requests for clemency, a package bomb addressed to him was intercepted in the Boston post office.Bruce Watson, Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders, and the Judgment of Mankind (NY: Viking Press, 2007), 303-4 A few months after the executions, he endorsed proposals to reform the state's judicial procedures to require a more thorough review of capital cases.New York Times: "Fuller Urges Change in Criminal Appeals," January 5, 1928, accessed June 22, 2010 In 1928, he was an early supporter of Herbert Hoover's presidential campaign, after considering his own run for the presidency,New York Times: F. Lauriston Bullard, "Bay Staters Cast Fuller's Hat in Ring," January 29, 1928, accessed July 24, 2010 and was rumored to be a candidate for a federal government if Hoover won,New York Times: "Gov. Fuller Won't Run," June 26, 1928, accessed July 24, 2010 possibly as ambassador to France.New York Times: "Says Ex-Gov. Fuller is Paris Post Choice," March 21, 1929, accessed July 24, 2010 After leaving office, he became chairman of the board of Cadillac-Oldsmobile Co. of Boston and continued to develop his reputation as a patron of arts and music.New York Times: "Gov. Fuller Pays $31,000 for Painting," February 19, 1926, accessed July 24, 2010 He died in Boston on April 30, 1958. He was a superb collector of art and among those painters represented in his collection were Renoir, Rembrandt, Turner, Gainsborough, Sargent, Monet, Van Dyck, Romney, Boccaccino, Boucher and Reynolds. His paintings were donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Donations include: Monet's "The Water Lily Pond," Renoir's "Boating Couple," and van Dyck's "Princess Mary, Daughter of Charles I." His philanthropy was wide ranging and included art, hospitals, education, religion, municipalities and social services. He established The Fuller Foundation, Inc., during his lifetime and it was, and continues to be, the instrument through which many charitable agencies have benefited in the Greater Boston and Seacoast area of New Hampshire. He was interred in East Cemetery in Rye Beach, New Hampshire, where he had a summer home. His wife, Viola Theresa Davenport Fuller, died in 1959. She had a brief career as an opera singer, performing in Paris and then debuting in Boston in 1910. She and the governor had four children, two boys and two girls.New York Times: Mrs. Alvan Fuller Dies," August 5, 1959, accessed July 24, 2010 References External links *Official Commonwealth of Massachusetts Governor Biography * Category:1878 births Category:1958 deaths Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:Massachusetts Republicans Category:Governors of Massachusetts Category:Lieutenant Governors of Massachusetts Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts de:Alvan T. Fuller fr:Alvan T. Fuller la:Alvan Tufts Fuller